The Journey Is Better With A Dog

I've heard it said that the recipe for a long, healthy life is to have something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to. Meet Beau, who ticks all three boxes.

Meet Beau, my new companion on life’s adventure

I've heard it said that the recipe for a long, healthy life is to have something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to. The last few years have been a lot of limbo and goodbyes for me, but yesterday I met someone who ticks those boxes on that life recipe as I take the first steps of the next leg of life's journey.

Meet Beau, a 10-month-old maybe lab/retriever/hound mix who came home with me on Wednesday from Lollypop Farm Humane Society in Rochester, NY. He's smart and playful and loving and gentle, and I was told has a known, positive history with other dogs and small children, and if my gut is right, we're going to ride out the next decade-plus together in grand style.

Picking up my new companion on the next phase of life’s adventure.

Over the last two years, I’ve said goodbye to both Bandit and Bailey, my marriage (first time I’ve said that publicly), what I thought was stability, and the general status quo of the last few decades. Sometimes it was impossible to bear; often it was liberating. The dogs are still heartbreaking. But once the initial chaos settled, I began to realize that the ripping away of everything left me with feet on a new path and opportunities for a new future, and the only thing that matters now is what I need and want.

The thing is? I don't know what I want or need.

I've been able to help out with my new grandson, who lives out of town. I had a great adventure in Chicago. I've taught workshops. I ran errands without worrying about a dog at home. But those are moments in an otherwise lonely day-to-day existence.

Just because you can do anything you want doesn't mean you want to do everything.

The last seven months since I said goodbye to Bailey (Bandit left me in October 2022) is the first time in almost 35 years I've not had a dog in the house. I don't know who I am without a dog.

Which leads me to Beau.

I’ve been telling friends recently that I’m ready to be ready for another dog, but I wasn't sure I was ready ready, if you know what I mean. I talked to fosters I knew from my days writing about dogs. I talked to Bandit's breeder, who had a puppy that probably needed me as much as I needed him, but it didn't feel quite right. I met a lovel little dog available for adoption, but it wasn’t a love connection for either of us. I looked at Border Collie rescues and Petfinder.

Mostly, though, I heard the voices of other people in my ear, saying, “Don't get another dog yet. You finally just got your freedom.”

Maybe. I don’t know. Moving on in this new phase of my life may be very different than other people want it to be for me. But I decided to stop looking until after the holidays.

Which is why I surprised myself last Monday when, totally on a whim, I was driving by Lollypop Farm (the Humane Society of Greater Rochester), and turned into the parking lot. The short story is that through a tearful, comforting, supportive series of divinely inspired "here's a door, walk through" moments (a story for another day), this handsome, gentle, playful, love bug basically hopped into my path. He came home with me on Wednesday, and we've been having a great adventure as we’re getting to know each other.

When I first spied him, his fluffy, Bandit-like tail and snout drew me to him like a moth to a flame. My daughter pointed out that he looks just like Bailey. His gentle nature reminds me of Scout. My hope is that he's the very best of my beloveds.

Bandit, Bailey, and Scout, the dog loves of my life. I think they’re whispering in Beau’s ear.

Listen. Life throws you curve balls. You figure it out and move on. Or maybe you don't figure anything out because there's nothing to figure out. You simply take the next step and the next step, and try to move from “managing to get through the day” to “looking forward to tomorrow”. It’s sufficient to say that, in the end, it all works out the way it’s supposed to.

But sometimes it works out better with a dog.